


Window Pane

by blueticked



Category: Hermitcraft RPF
Genre: Evil personas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-18
Updated: 2020-06-18
Packaged: 2021-03-03 18:46:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24790282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blueticked/pseuds/blueticked
Summary: Tango and Impulse discuss the brand new presence of Helsknight.It's not a coincidence that all the evil personas have red eyes.
Comments: 45
Kudos: 245





	Window Pane

**Author's Note:**

> I was super inspired by Wels' Helsknight narrative. A little different from what I usually write.

There was a new evil persona walking around the server.

'Helsknight' was what he called himself, the physical manifestation of everything negative Wels had kept inside him, brought into existence through Beef's faulty cloning machine.

No one gave much thought to him, no one paid any attention to him.

After all, if their experiences with Evil Xisuma was anything to go by, Helsknight wouldn't be much of an actual threat to the server or to their existence. At best, his antics would be entertaining and amusing; at worst, he would cause enough frustration for Wels to ask Xisuma to ban Helsknight - the same fate that had befallen upon Evil X at the very end.

And just like Evil X, Helsknight seemed more concerned with goading the other players instead of actually doing evil deeds and destroying Hermitcraft. Heck, Grian blowing up his own barge or Jevin blowing up his own base were more destructive than Hels trapping Wels in a 5-block-deep hole.

"Our battle will be legendary," Hels told Wels, actually challenging him to an honourable duel instead of attempting to stab Wels in the back and gracefully accepting his eventual defeat, retreating peacefully into the Nether.

"This isn't over," Hels warned menacingly as he disappeared into the portal. Wels, instead of worrying over it or informing Xisuma, just took a sip of water and a long nap.

"All these evil personas," Tango mused, "they don't actually know how to be evil."

"Right," Impulse laughed, "and you do?"

Tango paused for a moment before he looked over his shoulder at Impulse and flashed him a sharp smile, both of them sitting at the edge of Impulse's base above the sea. "I _am_ known for my evil traps. Does The Tangler ring a bell?"

"That measly problem solving maze thing I was trapped in for barely an hour with Zed, having the time of my life?" Impulse grinned back.

"Hey!" Tango raised a hand and shoved Impulse over, making Impulse break into hearty laughter. "I managed to trap Scar for eight hours in that, though!"

"Yeah, yeah, it was pretty good," Impulse conceded, leaning back and using his arms to hold himself up. He tilted his head in question at Tango. "If you had an evil persona, what do you think he'd do?"

"Hmm," Tango hummed, turning away from Impulse to face the sun setting over the edge of the horizon. "I don't think I need an evil persona; I'm more evil than he'd ever be."

"Humour me," Impulse prompted.

"I don't know," Tango answered vaguely, distractedly. He sounded like he had something else on his mind; Impulse's question had generated a new line of thought for him.

"Well," Impulse said, "I think _my_ evil persona would just go around smashing people's farms."

"He'd smash your own farms," Tango pointed out. Impulse could hear the faint grin in his voice even though Tango was looking away from him.

"Maybe," Impulse laughed, "he wouldn't be very evil, huh?"

"Nope," Tango said, popping the 'p'. He cast his eyes down to the sea, kicking his dangling legs up into a swing. "None of them are."

"What do you think Evil Impulse would look like?"

Tango cast his gaze back at Impulse. "Red creeper face, red sleeves," Tango looked up at Impulse's face, "red eyes."

"They do all have red eyes," Impulse noted.

"They sure do."

"Hey, how about Evil Tango?" Impulse asked, pushing himself up straight. Tango stiffened at that suggestion. "You already have red eyes, so they can't have red eyes anymore."

"No, they can't," Tango agreed, his voice suddenly quiet.

Impulse didn't seem to notice.

"Maybe white eyes," Impulse went on suggesting, "like Herobrine. Just pure white glowing eyes."

"Maybe." Tango didn't have much to add to the conversation. Impulse glanced over, finally noticing that something was up. "Yo, Tango, what's wrong?"

"Nothing," Tango stood up hastily, the word emerging in a sudden snap.

"You okay?" Impulse began to stand as well, but Tango raised a hand to stop him, taking a few steps back.

"I gotta go," was all Tango said, pulling rockets out of his pocket and soaring away before Impulse could add anything else.

"This wasn't supposed to happen."

Those were the first words he had ever heard. The unwelcoming tone they were spoken in were the least of his worries.

He could _hear_! No more garbled, distorted voices. No more constant static ringing all around him in the void. No, he could hear actual accented voices; he was able to distinguish them from one another. He could hear the metallic rattle of minecarts as they whizzed by on unsteady tracks. He could hear the low whoosh of the wind blowing past him.

He could _feel_ the wind blowing against his skin, chills creeping up his arms. He could feel the cold, hard cobblestone floor beneath him, his fingers brushing against its uneven surface. He could feel the strange friction of clothes on his body, tighter fabric restricting him around the vest and the bands around his wrists.

Physicality was weird, and a new normal he was going to have to learn to get used to.

He opened his eyes. He could _see_! There were two people looking down at where he lay on the floor, one moustached man in a black suit and another figure in a helmet with a purple visor and a green armour. _Colour_. He had heard of it, but he had never seen anything but various shades of black. Colour was so much more magical than he could have ever imagined it to be.

His chest felt tight. He placed his hand over his chest and instinctively opened his mouth, inhaling his first gasp of air. _Breathe_. He would have to keep reminding himself to do that. Breathing must be the most annoying thing a physical existence had to deal with. The price you had to pay in exchange for physicality.

"Tango… doesn't have red eyes." The moustached man finally spoke, sounding confused. He turned to the other person in armour. "He doesn't wear red clothes. Does he?"

"What's your name?" The armoured person directed the question at him on the ground instead.

"Tango," the word burst through his lips before he was even able to run it through as a thought. His voice was low, hoarse, rough; unused to speech, he supposed. He cleared his throat, licked his dry lips and tried again. "I'm Tango." His second attempt at speech didn't sound any better.

"No, you're not," the moustached man said, though he sounded confused himself.

"I am," he insisted. _Tango_ insisted. He had a name now. He had an identity. He existed. He was his own person.

"I don't know," the armoured man said. "We're only expecting the arrival of Tango, so he _must_ be Tango. Though…" The armoured man trailed off, giving him a glance-over. He too seemed to question Tango's appearance.

"I am Tango," Tango found his voice, sounding a lot more confident than he was before. He pushed himself off the ground, stepping back as he stumbled slightly, trying to find his centre of gravity. The two men just watched, dumbfounded and still confused. Tango finally stood straight and raised his right hand towards them. "Hi. Tango Tek. Iron farm?"

"Hi," the moustached man took Tango's hand, the first to shake away his doubts. "I'm Mumbo. Mumbo Jumbo."

"Xisuma," the armoured man followed, still holding back with his own suspicions and reservations.

"Great," Tango rubbed his hands together. "Let's see what we can do about that farm."

Tango was circling above Beef's beachside base when Helsknight found him.

"You're one of us," he said, sounding pleased. The twilight sky was dark enough to hide their presence from anyone on the ground, as long as no one looked too closely at the sky.

"I'm not," Tango quickly denied, using a rocket to propel himself forward and away from Hels.

Hels caught up easily, equipped with his own set of rockets and elytra. Tango wondered who he had stolen from.

"You are," Hels insisted casually. "I'm sure I can recognise one of my own. And your red eyes are a dead giveaway."

Tango flicked his gaze away from Hels down to the ground beneath them.

"If you're trying to hide your true identity, you're not doing it very well," Hels continued with his observation, speaking with the same thoughtful slowness as Wels did. There was an additional emphasis in his words that Wels didn't have, a sort of intimidation tactic he employed to sound more menacing. "Tell me, how did you infiltrate Hermitcraft? How did you come to existence? I noticed that there's only one of you, Tango Tek."

"It's none of your business," Tango snapped, a little too quickly, too defensively. Hels smiled at Tango's discomfort.

"Sure, keep your secrets," Hels raised both arms in the air in mock surrender. "I'm sure you know that Hermitcraft will be much better without Welsknight and that butt Xisuma. With them gone, the three of us will be able to destroy Hermitcraft in peace."

"Please don't associate me with yourself and Evil X."

"Oh," Hels' voice softened in false concern. "You've stayed here for so long that you think of these hermits as friends, don't you? You think you're a proper player? A true part of Hermitcraft?"

"I _am_ ," Tango insisted, though he didn't sound very convinced himself.

"Just because you've gotten rid of the real Tango Tek doesn't make _you_ real," Hels' words sharpened unkindly. "You can't get rid of your roots. Your origins. Your nature. You can't hide what you are."

"Please leave me alone," Tango told Hels, trying to sound firm, but his voice emerged a pained squeak. Tango had found Beef, and Hels had to leave so he could do what he came here to do.

Hels sneered at him, but rocketed away and left Tango in peace.

Tango tried to take a moment to compose himself, but his breathing wouldn't even and the weight in his chest wouldn't go away. Well, it was only natural that he felt afraid, he supposed. This was a long time coming, and he should have done this long ago.

He closed his elytra and dropped right in front of Beef's hacienda, crashing in front of him.

"Tango!" Beef scrambled towards him, helping him up. "Are you okay?"

"I need to use your cloning machine," Tango gasped, words tumbling out as fast as they formed against his tongue. "Please."

"Okay, sure," Beef rested a firm hand on Tango's shoulder, preventing him from running away, dusting him off. "Though, I have to warn you, it doesn't seem to work. I used it, Wels used it, and-"

"Please," Tango repeated, the desperate word dry on his tongue. "Please. I need it."

"Okay! Okay, calm down," Beef said, leading him down into the basement. He glanced back at Tango and his frazzled, anxious self. "I wasn't going to stop you. You can certainly try it. I'm just saying it doesn't work."

"It works," Tango affirmed, his urgent steps forcing Beef to walk faster and keep up in front of him. "It's not a cloning machine. It's a portal. And I need it to do whatever it did to Wels, but the opposite of that."

"You want to… unclone yourself? Remove yourself from existence?" Beef stopped in front of the cloning machine, causing Tango to bump into him from behind.

"It's a long time coming," Tango said, looking at the wooden box with a redstone block above it. "I should have done it a long time ago. And I should do it now, before I lose my nerves to do so."

"I don't understand," Beef said, still sounding puzzled, but he didn't push the matter. "You have to remove all your armour."

"I was never supposed to be here," Tango continued his attempt to explain the situation to Beef, though in unintentional bits and pieces of the story that made no sense to him. "I was never supposed to be part of Hermitcraft. And I'm going to right that wrong right now."

"Um... sure," Beef shrugged. He gestured towards the cloning machine when Tango had thrown his armour to the ground. "Didn't you join super early? Like in Season 2 or something?"

"It was never supposed to be _me_ ," Tango explained, only making less sense to Beef with every additional explanation.

"Here's the blaze rods, I guess," Beef dug them out from his pockets. The metal rods seemed to glow even brighter as they passed from Beef's hands to Tango's. "Hold one in each hand, then close the door, and we'll see what happens."

"Thank you," he sounded genuinely grateful, almost relieved. He took a step up into the machine.

"Stop." A simple command from Xisuma as he glided down the steps into Beef's basement.

How did X find him? How did X know he was here? Well, it didn't matter. He was going to go through with it. He stepped into the water.

"Stop!" Xisuma repeated. He pulled out an axe and chopped the door off, effectively preventing the machine from starting. "Get out."

"I have to do this, X," he pleaded, "Please. It's been eating me up inside forever. I don't belong here."

"You're one of us, Tango," Xisuma wrapped a gloved hand around one of the blaze rods and tried to tug it out of his hand. He only tightened his grip around the blaze rod.

"I'm not Tango," he whispered, his strained voice filled with pain. His red eyes burned bright in the dark basement, threatening to spill with all the tears he had held back all the way from Impulse's. "You know I'm not Tango."

"What?" Beef said behind Xisuma.

He swallowed and forced the difficult words out of his throat. "I'm Evil Tango."

Xisuma didn't realise he had made a mistake with Tango until the emergence of Evil Xisuma in Season 3.

"You're not Tango," Xisuma stated bluntly, staring at the red-eyed evil manifestation who had passed off as Tango for an entire season.

Evil Tango glanced to the side at Evil Xisuma, trapped and locked up in an iron cage after his attempt to destroy the Hermitcraft server with ender dragons. He was sitting in a corner of his jail cell, his arms crossed unhappily in front of him, pouting as powerful lightning continued to strike where he sat. Evil Tango noted Evil Xisuma's red visor and the red accents of his armour, then looked down at himself and his red-and-black clothes.

"No, I'm not," he admitted.

"What stops me from banning you right now?" Xisuma snapped irritably at him, reaching over the desk to pick up his communicator.

"Nothing," was all he said.

His defeatist attitude made Xisuma pause. X had expected Evil Tango to rage with his cover blown, to attack him; threaten to blow up Hermitcraft just as Evil Xisuma had done just hours earlier.

"You're not even going to fight for your place in Hermitcraft?"

"I... don't even know why I'm here," he kept his gaze on the ground. "One moment I existed in the void, I could see a vague world in the darkness; I know I'm linked to someone called Tango, and then I was suddenly here, with a physical presence."

Xisuma stood up, walking around the desk he had placed to separate himself from them. He placed a wooden stair in the middle of the room, gestured at it, and hoisted himself onto the cobblestone table. Evil Tango hesitated, then sat down on the stair and buried his face in his hands.

"Talk," Xisuma said.

"What do you want me to say?"

"What do you know about Tango?" Xisuma asked.

"Everything, I suppose. I have all his memories. I can do whatever he can do; all the redstone and everything. I'm… a part of him, I guess. The part he shoved in the void, the part he didn't want to face, to deal with."

"The evil part." Xisuma clarified.

Evil Tango glanced at Evil Xisuma.

"I suppose," he said quietly.

"So how come you're not evil?" Xisuma probed. "How come you've never tried to blow up the server?"

"I don't know!" Evil Tango threw his arms in the air, strained and stressed. "Was I supposed to do that? Is that the purpose of my existence? How was I to know that I'm evil? I was so excited to have a body, to be able to physically do the things I've always watched Tango do, that I never considered the reason for my physicality."

Xisuma remained silent, and Evil Tango filled the silence by standing up and walking towards Evil Xisuma in his cage.

"Hey," Evil Tango said, his voice hard with frustration. Evil X looked up and growled. If they could see through the helmet, he was probably baring his teeth at them. "Why do you want to blow up the Hermitcraft server?"

"Because I want to blow him up and take his place," Evil X pointed at Xisuma.

"But you're him," Evil Tango pointed out.

"Exactly," Evil X nodded.

"Competition," Xisuma said thoughtfully. Evil Tango turned back to see Xisuma observing him carefully. "You don't have competition here; there's no Tango here that you have to prove yourself and your existence to be more worthy than just being the 'evil' Tango."

"Sure, maybe," Evil Tango walked back to the stair and sat down again. He crossed his arms and rested them on his knees, looking away from Xisuma. "I don't know," he muttered.

"Hmm," was all Xisuma replied with.

"I don't even know how I can go on living knowing that I'm not even my own person; that I'm just one part of someone else - someone else that you wanted to invite to this server, not me."

"I think you've evolved to be more than just 'evil', Tango," Xisuma said kindly, but he had spun a web of thought, a conflict of existence in Evil Tango's mind that would never leave.

"I don't know," Evil Tango repeated. "But if I'm not supposed to be here, you can go ahead and ban me. You can invite the real Tango here. I know when I'm unwanted. I won't be angry."

"The other Tango doesn't need to know," Xisuma said, and Evil Tango could hear the smile in his voice, underneath the helmet. "We never sent an official invitation to Tango; we were just messing around with the code when Mumbo had trouble with his iron farm."

"So I was created by accident. I was never supposed to exist."

"Don't say that," Xisuma's voice softened further. "I think everyone will be happy to have you continue to stay as a hermit, Tango."

"Please," Tango begged. "Please let go of the blaze rod. I have to do this."

"No," Xisuma was firm. "Come out of the stupid machine right now."

"I'm living a life that's not mine," Tango's voice trembled, at the brink of tears. "Don't you want the real Tango here instead?"

"We've been through this before; you're as real of a Tango as we can get," Xisuma stated matter-of-factly.

"You're the only Tango we want," Beef added from behind.

"Beef, tear down the machine," Xisuma said.

Beef nodded and got to work immediately.

"I don't understand," Tango whispered, as the wooden trapdoors were knocked out of the air around him. His shoulders slumped, defeated, and he didn't resist when Xisuma tugged the blaze rods away from him. "I'm not real. I'm just like Helsknight."

"You're nothing like Helsknight," Xisuma said, sounding genuinely surprised behind his modified bee helmet. "What makes you think that you're like Helsknight?"

"I'm evil."

"Are you evil?" Xisuma immediately questioned.

Tango bit his lip. He kept his eyes on the ground. "Technically."

"Don't 'technically' me," Xisuma raised his voice slightly. "Technically, Cleo's a zombie. No, don't 'technically' me. Are _you_ evil?"

"I don't feel evil," Tango whispered.

"So you're not evil," Xisuma concluded. "Do you feel the need to destroy Hermitcraft?"

"No."

"Then you're welcome here," Xisuma patted his shoulder, tugging him out of the cauldron of water.

Supported by Xisuma and Beef, Tango took one step out of the cauldron, and another step, before he stumbled and sank down onto the stair instead, hunched over. He rubbed his hands across his face, taking a moment to compose himself and failing.

"Hels said that I could never escape the nature of who I am," Tango spoke so quietly they had to strain to hear him. " _What_ I am."

"What _they_ are is not what _you_ are," Xisuma reinforced. "You're nothing like Helsknight. Helsknight manifested with anger, with the intent of destruction. He wants to get rid of Wels; he wants to take his place. That's their only purpose. You're nothing like them. You've created. You've invented. You've grown beyond being just 'a part of Tango'." Xisuma raised his hands to create physical air quotes. "You're your own person. And you _know_ it." 

Tango remained silent.

"Say it," Xisuma insisted. "'I am my own person'. Say it, Tango."

Tango didn't, but the slightest smile of relief twitched the corners of his lips upwards.

"Oh my goodness, X, you found him," Impulse's voice came from the top of the stairs. "Oh my god, Tango," Impulse said as he burst into the room. He huffed in mock annoyance, more in utter relief, pulling Tango into a hug. "Why did you run off like that? I thought something bad had happened. I don't know what I'd do if I lost my best friend."

"I'm your best friend?" Tango spoke, his voice gaining a little more of its usual strength. His smile grew just a little wider.

"Of course, you idiot," Impulse shoved his arm.

"You're not my best friend," Tango looked up at him, the smile growing into a grin. His red eyes twinkled. "Zedaph's my best friend."

"Why you-" Impulse inhaled loudly, and Tango burst into laughter. He glanced briefly at Xisuma, who was still looking straight at him.

"Say it," Xisuma urged again, and Tango could feel his piercing gaze through the visor. "Say it, Tango."

Tango fell silent. His lips parted but he couldn't get the words out. He couldn't say it because he didn't believe it.

Maybe he was never actually evil, but he was also never meant to exist. He was a part of someone else, just a fraction of a whole person. _Maybe_ he had developed more areas to himself than what he was, but his origin story was not something he could ignore.

"But you agree that you're _nothing_ like Evil X and Hels, right?" Xisuma prompted, breaking the silence.

Tango smiled. "That I can agree with," he said, straightening his back. "They're wrong. I'm not like them. I'm a HERMIT."

"Heck yeah, dude!" Impulse raised his arm in a high five.

Tango pulled Impulse into a hug of utter relief instead. "Thank you," Tango said, completely sincere. He looked up at Xisuma and Beef. "Thank you."

Tango swore that was the only time he could ever see the corners of Xisuma's eyes crinkle with a wide smile behind the visor.

THE END

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you thought?


End file.
